Product Review: The Power of Girls: Inside and Out DVD
by mommasbacon on January 31, 2012

The first words out of my husband’s mouth in the ultrasound room after we found out we were having a girl was the faint terrified whisper of, “teenage boys”. I had to quickly remind him that we first need to get her outside my womb before we could think about her next 18 years of life, but it does bring up a good point that we all can sometimes forget. Girls can find their inner strength to accept themselves, act in their best interest and not let negative messages sway them from making wise choices. Girls are not inferior to boys and they can and should stand up for themselves. Ways to empower our daughters are through modeling positive behavior, holding them accountable for their actions, giving them acceptance and keeping our lines of communication open to talk about the many difficult issues and concerns we all face. While my daughter is still young, I seek out encouraging products that I plan to use to help guide her down a healthy path of a good self image and hopefully positive life.

Caregivers, parents and girls 5th grade and above are the targeted audience for the DVD The Power of Girls: Inside and Out. An 18 year old, Rachel, narrated the 20 minute film while four other young teens take turns telling their stories in a very honest and positive tone as they discuss their real life experiences dealing with such topics as loss, bullies, sexual activities and eating disorders. The DVD is meant to be watched by girls and their educators or caregivers together in order to use the DVD as a platform to open up deeper discussions on these sensitive matters. The issue of peer pressure, the need for acceptance and approval and group conflicts are especially vital topics for young girls and teens that are covered in Katti’s story in a compelling yet not overly dramatic way where I believe girls can relate. I love the focus for girls to find strong support networks in their lives and each girl talks about how family members, sport teams and organizations like Girls Incorporated were great ways for them to seek out and get positive encouragement. When girls realize that they can and should stand up for their beliefs, love themselves and have the power to direct their own life it will open up their own platform of empowerment to not be swayed by others and hold true to themselves. These are difficult lessons to learn for anyone and the younger you are able to overcome such self-doubting obstacles, the more successful and in control you become of your life. This is a great tool for parents who may find it a struggle on how to bring up topics of personal power, acceptance and self respect in today’s world for their pre-teen to teenage daughter.

Bonus: Click here to get The Power of Girls discussion guide for this DVD free of charge.

About Words Can Work: Words Can Work is a Woman Owned Business created by Jeanne Blake who is the owner and founder of Blake Works. Check out the Words Can Work website for a wealth of multimedia products geared toward children and educators alike in the three keys areas of public health, child development and family communication. All of the materials I reviewed were of high quality that had very clear and powerful messages for both a parent and a child. Some material highlights are the booklet on When Talking About Depression, the very popular How to Deal with Bullying materials and the two-set DVD on Our Raising Healthy Kids: Families Talk About Sexual Health. Jeanne did tell me that while her materials are designed for youth ages 8-18 in conjunction with their caregivers that many parents find the messages relevant to raising younger children.